16. A Call and Response

Right first off, thanks to the three that commented on the promo! Now I'd just like to respond to Mr. M's comment in particular, I'm doing it here because I also cover some of my reasoning and inspiration behind certain decisions.


1. 'Jack looks the part as white t-shirt chef through the servery 'window' although doesn't seem to be doing much work'

Jack said that "this is what real greasy spoon chefs do! They stand at the kitchen window looking hard!". Haha, well anyway I thought I'd just let him have that one, but I still got him to move around (basically anytime he moves around the kitchen is when I've shouted at him to "move around a bit more!" whilst waving my arm in a circular direction above my head. I wanted him to move around because there's a bit in one of our practices in which someone in the corridor moves past the window of the door of 101, and it looks good because it's a tight framing (that whole thing of stuff moving faster in a tightly framed close-up all applies here). So that was my direction with that.

2. 'Zal does a great job'

Zal is awesome. Acting in slow-motion has never been made to look so easy! I love the effect when he leans into the camera to say something, fills up the frame and really makes it look like he's talking to just you.

3. 'Paul and his disappearing fingerless gloves has certainly got ants in his pants!'

With Paul I'd told him to have an "animated discussion" with Rob (I actually told him to say "Malkovich, Malkovich, Malkovich" repeatedly cos I'd seen Being John Malkovich for the first time the other day lol, nerd alert), with lots of arm/body movement. I did this because it looks good on camera in double speed. I didn't see the point of using the effect if it wasn't going to be utilised to it's maximum potential!

4. 'Did you snap the camera onto the tripod after your initial handheld track?'

I actually kept it on the tripod for the whole take, as it would've been too difficult to film the opening bit of the guys inside the kitchen steadily. It's a shame because I had an idea to "do a Children of Men" (the car-attack scene in the New Forest, anyone? With the in-car rig swinging the camera in and out of the windows, anyone?) and start the filming in the kitchen (Jake would do that), bring the camera through the hatch (by handing it through to me) and then continue as you see in the promo, but the tripod wouldn't fit. Plus there would've been problems with Jake not being too obvious in handing the camera over, he is acting in the scene after all. But yeah, I was pretty damn pleased with the tracking shots, because that was without a dolly and any minor shakes would've been multiplied in the fast-motion effect. I was also pretty pleased that I managed to settle the tripod down in front of Zal without a horrible, jerky bump. So yeah, bit of blowing my own trumpet, but there you go!


Right what else...nope, nothing, for now...

Just good luck John! But don't try too hard! :P